13. Jasmine

13

JASMINE

T he meal was over, the table was clean, and the leftovers were stored in the fridge, but there was still no sign of Edgar.

Jasmine had thought about calling him, but that wasn't smart. She shouldn't cling to their relationship and rely on him when she'd been the one who had ended things between them.

It wasn't fair to Edgar; she wasn't the type of woman who took advantage of a man's attraction to her.

A small, insidious voice in the back of her head whispered, why not ? Women did that all the time, especially those the goddess had gifted with good looks and charm.

The truth was that Jasmine wasn't a saint, and she'd used her assets to her advantage in the past, but it had always been with men who saw her as an object of desire, not those who had genuine feelings for her.

Like Edgar.

"Coffee is served, mesdames et messieurs ." Frankie put the tray down on the coffee table. "Help yourselves."

Gabi leaned back against the plush cushions of the couch, her expression thoughtful as she gazed out the window at the sprawling city below. "Aru and I will probably stay here for a while. My clients are okay with me working remotely, and I even did that from Tibet, but it was a hassle because of the time difference. It's going to be a breeze doing it from here."

"What about you?" Jasmine asked Aru. "What are you going to do now?"

The god looked unsure. "We need to evaluate the equipment we salvaged from the pod. I hope William can help us with that. I also need to figure out our next move." He sighed. "Given the state of the pod we found, I don't have much hope of finding any other pods with living Kra-ell inside. Still, we need to find them and ensure that they don't fall into the hands of humans."

Jasmine felt a pang of sorrow at the thought of all the lives that had been lost and all the hopes and dreams that had been lost with them.

Gabi smiled with a mischievous glint in her eyes as she turned to Frankie and Margo. "You two can finally come to the village and start working as beta testers for Perfect Match."

"That's right." Frankie clapped her hands. "By the way, Mia and Toven are coming over, and they are picking up champagne to celebrate with us. Mia is over the moon that we are back so soon. She expected this to take months."

Jasmine envied what they had so much.

They had all already found their forever mates, had transitioned into immortality, and knew what their future held. At the same time, she was stuck in limbo with nothing more than vague readings from her tarot cards and promises that might or might not come true.

"Do you think I could come see the village?" she asked. "I'd love to see it, and maybe they can find a spot for me on the Perfect Match team."

"I'm not sure," Gabi admitted. "It's not really up to me. Kian will have to make that call." She glanced at the others, a shadow of uncertainty passing over her face. "I hope Kian will be okay with us staying in his penthouse. If not, we will have to look for a place to rent."

"I'm sure Kian will let you stay here," Ella said.

"Yeah, I think he will, but we should ask and not just assume that we can stay." Gabi cocked her head to the side, a curious expression stealing over her features. "Speaking of decisions…" She pinned Jasmine with a questioning look. "I understand that you and Edgar have shifted into the friend zone. Is it friends with benefits?"

Jasmine chuckled. "Before, it was. Now it's only friends. Why?"

Gabi shrugged. "I was just thinking about your induction and who will do it."

Margo shook her head. "Couldn't you have waited a few more days? Now you will have to find someone else to do it."

Jasmine had been thinking the same thing only moments ago, so she shouldn't get angry at Margo for suggesting that she would have been better off using Edgar and discarding him when she got what she needed from him.

"Edgar was fun to be with, and I'll always care about him as a friend, but things just fizzled out between us, and there was no point in dragging it out. It wouldn't have been fair to him if I just used him to induce my transition."

Negal nodded his approval, and Dagor did too.

"You did the right thing," Negal said. "Edgar might be hurting right now, but it would have been much worse if he felt used."

Tears prickled the backs of Jasmine's eyes. "He's a good guy, and he deserves someone who can give him her whole heart and looks at him like he hung the moon and stars for her."

Frankie sighed, a wistful expression stealing over her face. "I just hope your prince will feel that way about you once he wakes up and gets to know you."

"There is no guarantee of that." Gabi winced. "The guy is a celibate priest."

"Was," Jasmine said. "The twins' mother consecrated them to the priesthood to hide them from their people because they looked hybrid, and it was crucial that no one found out. They didn't join out of religious convictions or the wish to serve their people through their spiritual journey. It was just the part they were forced to play."

Jasmine wasn't sure who she was trying to convince, herself or Gabi.

"Still, even if he has no qualms about dropping his celibacy, he might take one look at me and run screaming in the opposite direction."

She'd said that as a joke, but Gabi wasn't smiling.

"There might be another problem," she said. "It is not a foregone conclusion that the prince could induce your transition at all. The Kra-ell don't have that ability. Only the gods and immortals do. Let's hope the prince's venom is as potent as the gods' or the immortals'."

Jasmine nodded as fear and hope mingled in her gut. Gabi was right, and there were no guarantees about anything, but even as doubts and uncertainties coursed through her like a gathering storm, deep down, she knew everything would be okay.

Whether the prince could induce her transition or not, she had to believe he was her destiny, the other half of her soul.